When did the Old Testament Believers Receive the Actual Forgiveness of Sins?
This payment was made “according to the counsel of God.” But how does Turretin explain this full payment and transfer of debt made in the eternal counsels of God, presumably in the pactum salutis?
Turretin writes: “It is one thing to demand of Christ a debt for present payment; another to lay iniquities upon him, and impute them to him. A debt can be imputed to the surety long before it is demanded for present payment.” Citing Isaiah 53:5, God “laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Turretin claims that the sins of the elect were not laid on him when they were actually demanded of him. Rather, the sins of the elect were imputed to him in the eternal counsel of God.? On this point, Turretin also invokes Revelation 13:8, which speaks of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Christ was designated by this title even though his personal sacrifice would not transpire for many ages….
Old Testament believers enjoyed the full benefits of Christ’s suretiship, which means that their sins were transferred to Christ in the eternal counsel of God. [Turretin, Institutes, XII.x9.] They were also partakers of the covenant of grace and through their union with Christ were in a covenanted communion with God, which entitled them to all of the blessings of redemption. By virtue of their justification, they were freed from the curse of the law. Consider, for example, the OT examples of Abraham, Jacob, Job, David, Hezekiah, and others who testified of the joy and consolation that followed from their apprehension of Christ’s righteousness by faith. [Turretin, Institutes, XXII.x.9.]
J. V. Fesko, The Covenant of Redemption: Origins, Development, and Reception (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), 102, 103. .
iustitia aliena 
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